30 August 1977
L
She heard the unmistakeable sound of Tuney's quick, angry footsteps down the second-story hallway of their Cokeworth home.
Three... Two... One...
"Lily!" yelled Petunia, busting through her bedroom door without knocking. She looked like she had smelled something rotten.
Lily was sitting ontop of her luggage, acting casual, trying to keep the overpacked mess from spilling onto the bed, her sister having huffed downstairs at the sight of her Potions supplies when she'd first returned home for summer.
Petunia eyed her up and down, suspicious, then accepted that nothing in the room appeared overly strange. Lily was getting better at keeping her school things hidden away in her trunk.
"One of your freak letters came in the post," said Petunia, emphasising her favourite taunt. She was tightly clutching a pale brown envelope.
"They don't come in the post, they come by owl," said Lily, immediately regretting the correction.
Petunia threw the letter towards her head, missing narrowly, and walked out of the bedroom with her arms crossed. Moments later, Lily heard the unsatisfied slam of Tuney's own bedroom door.
She shuffled her bum off the luggage and onto the mattress, leaning down to grab the letter near her dust ruffles. The envelope bore a regal-looking seal with a crest in red wax, clearly something delivered by owl. It must have been dropped on the front step when Petunia had found it.
I need to talk with you in person. I wouldn't ask if it weren't important (and entirely unrelated to a date... I know you'll use this letter as fireplace kindling if I don't mention that).
Please meet me at 8:30 p.m. at the corner of Mill Road and Lundern Street in Cokeworth, a very convenient two-minute walk if you're averse to disapparating while you're home.
Sincerely,
James Potter
He wanted her to meet him at the end of her street. She looked at the clock on her dresser: 6:52 p.m. Potter didn't believe in time to spare, did he?
She threw open her trunk and took out a sheet of parchment. Sloppily dunking a quill in black ink, Lily scribbled out the only message she could think to send him.
This had better be good.
- L.E.
She hopped off of the bed to Tuppence's cage on the other side of the floor, her beautiful white and orange Barn Owl asleep on her perch.
"I have a tasty vole for you," said Lily, poking a finger through the open cage door. The owl's large eyes widened with expectation.
"That was a lie, I'm sorry," she apologised. Tuppence gave a small hoot of disappointment.
"But now that you're awake, I need you to get this to James Potter in, erm, Godric's Hollow, I think."
Tuppence sipped from the cage water tray and flew onto the windowsill. Out of regular envelopes, Lily stuffed the parchment into the first mismatched aqua-coloured thing she could find, something that went with an unused Muggle birthday card. Tuppence nipped impatiently at the window, and she muscled it open, watching her owl fly outside and into the distance.
What could Potter possibly want?
J
"I still can't believe she said yes," said Sirius, lying comfortably on the Potters' blue velvet fainting sofa. His hands were behind his neck-length black hair. "Are you sure it doesn't turn over to say, 'Only kidding, piss off,' on the back?"
James was sitting on a wooden swivel chair in the family study, both elbows on his father's desk, re-reading Lily's response for the 20th time.
"Believe me, I checked," said James, narrowing his eyes with a "fuck off" smile at Sirius.
"I wonder how Evans will take the news..." said Sirius.
"I don't want her to find out at the Start-of-Term Feast, that's the point of doing this tonight," said James. "I'd like to avoid being tackled and choked on our first day back."
"Well, in that case, are you sure you wouldn't rather wait to tell her?" said Sirius, grinning.
James glanced at the gold wristwatch on his left arm. The longest clock hand was nearing the six.
"I should go," he said, walking to the middle of the room. "Wish me luck I don't get hexed."
"'Luck,'" smiled Sirius.
With a loud crack, James found himself apparated to a quiet street corner of a bleak English suburb. The houses, uniformly grey and lifeless, were lined up and down both sides of the road for as far as he could see. The orange and red sunset bled across the sky above the rooftops.
James turned to look in the other direction, and saw a girl swing open an iron gate and latch it carefully behind her. The shock of her red hair against the colourless houses made his heart beat wildly. He hadn't seen Lily all summer.
She walked towards him, her bare legs visible in jean shorts, and smiled politely as she stopped several feet shy of where he was standing (her arms tightly crossed).
"So you really don't apparate while you're home?" said James, breaking the silence.
"No, it makes my sister uncomfortable," replied Lily, straightening up. "Sorry to be blunt, but why are you here?"
"I, uh..." he choked on his words, unsure of why he couldn't just spit it out. Some Gryffindor.
"Look, James, if this is about a date-"
"It's not," he interrupted, her pity-use of his first name snapping him back to his usual confidence. "I just thought you should know that we're going to be working together this year."
Lily looked to the side and back at James, her eyes narrowed in confusion and anger.
"What are you talking about, Potter?" she said, stepping closer to him.
"I'm Head Boy," said James, exhaling deeply.
"No you're not," she practically spat. She was looking up at him, cheeks flushed in anger. "How could you be Head Boy? You're already a bloody Quidditch captain."
"I got the letter at the beginning of the month. I didn't know it'd be you, too, but then Sirius told me that Marlene had seen you recently, and..." he trailed off, unsure of how to finish his sentence. "Anyway, best to deal with this now, probably."
"You don't say," said Lily, sarcastically.
"I'm not that bad," he said, offended.
"You and your idiot friends have made school a hundred times more annoying than it had to be for everyone else. How am I supposed to do Heads' duties with someone who blows up toilets for a laugh?" she said, pointing at James. "At least Remus tries to do well the rest of the time."
"I haven't blown up a toilet since I was fifteen, and I do try to do well," said James, angrily. "I'm sorry if you're stuck on what happened in fifth fucking year, but I've grown up since then."
Lily's arms crossed over her body again, her shoulders hunched and her gaze on the grey pavement beneath them.
"I'm sorry," she said. Her voice had softened for the first time.
She looked at James and sat down on the kerb, her legs stretched out on the deserted town road. James sat down beside her. His gangly legs made his trainers look a full foot ahead of hers.
"You're clever, I know that," said Lily, staring at her shoes, "but you do understand why this is confusing to me?"
"I don't know why Dumbledore didn't choose Remus, but he didn't," said James. "We're just going to have to, uh, what's the phrase? 'Go with the flow.'"
Lily let out a loud stream of air from her nose and chuckled.
"If you stop using terrible idioms, maybe," she said.
"Yes, sorry. May the force be with you," he tried to say solemnly, barely containing his smile.
She raised up a fist and punched him lightly on the top of his arm.
"So I guess we're going to have to try harder at getting along," said Lily, making a face.
"Well, don't look too thrilled about it," teased James.
The vibrant colour of the sky was fading quickly.
"Just show up to all of the meetings, be a leader, and stop telling Peeves to dump water buckets on Filch," she said, stifling a laugh.
"You knew that was me?" said James.
"Everyone knew that was you," she said, a grin stretched across her face for a moment. "Just please don't mess this up. And no more flaming toilets, ever."
"Do you want that in an Unbreakable Vow?" he joked, and she hit him on the arm again, harder.
"Yes, I will put all of my efforts into doing this job," he said, locking eyes with her.
She raised a pinky in front of him.
"Er, what are you doing?" he said, sneering at her hand.
"A pinky swear, it's a Muggle thing," she said, sighing. "Just hook your damn finger with mine."
He copied her gesture, and slowly raised his finger before drawing it back to his body, hesitantly.
"This isn't magically binding, right?" he asked, feeling like an idiot.
"Only in the way that I'll hex you in the crotch if you don't follow through," she said, cheerfully.
She stuck her pinky finger forward again.
"Repeat after me: I, James middle name Potter..." she began.
"'I, James Charlus Potter...'" he repeated.
"Promise to work really hard..."
"'Promise to work really hard...'"
"And not be a giant wanker..."
"I somehow doubt this is pinky swear regulation," he said, furrowing his brow.
"Hex. Crotch. Three of something you don't want three of," she said, coaxing him to finish.
"'And not be a giant wanker...'"
"Because Hogwarts deserves better than a giant wanker as Head Boy," she finished.
"Even Slytherin, though? Really?" he joked.
"I'm beginning to think you want three," said Lily, tilting her head.
"'Because Hogwarts deserves better than a giant wanker as Head Boy,'" said James, quickly.
"That's the spirit," she laughed, hooking her pinky with his.
Merlin, her hands were soft. James was certain that this was the most civil they'd ever been with each other. He also couldn't remember a single time he'd touched her.
"See? We're not a bad team," he said, smiling weakly. James pushed himself to his feet and extended a hand down to her.
Lily stood up, brushing dust from the kerb off of her bottom.
L
They were walking towards her house at the end of the street. She saw James squinting his eyes to make out the pond and the willow tree beyond where the street stopped.
"Could we go there?" he asked. It was an innocent question, but her stomach turned at the thought of sharing the hill with anyone, anymore.
Lily thought of the maple spinners, a flower in her palm, the scathing remarks from her sister, and a boy whose friendship had kept her sane when they'd only had each other. She'd found a maple spinner in her Potions textbook at the end of sixth year, bewitched to flutter out of the pages and into the air around her. She had plucked it from the air and stared into her palm, before crushing it with a closed fist and letting the damaged wings fall to the classroom floor.
"No, it's boring over there, really," she said, trying not to stir his interest.
They arrived outside of the short and unimpressive iron gate that guarded 248 Lundern Street, her childhood home. James ran a hand through his hair and ruffled it up. Lily got the impression that it was more of a habit by now than the actual desire for the windswept, just-rode-a-broomstick look. Then again, it was James Potter, so probably not.
"So, Potter, this is it," she said, standing in front of him with her back to the gate.
"Until the train, in a couple days," he reminded her.
"Then it really begins, doesn't it?" she joked, widening her eyes for exaggeration.
"I'll remember the pinky swear," said James, with an unusual sincerity in his voice.
He held out his hand between them, in position for a handshake. Lily slid her hand into his, and James shook firmly, the corner of his mouth raised in a small smile. They dropped their hands, not letting go.
"I, um..." she started saying, staring at him.
He let go of her hand, and turned his head. It was nearly dark, but she could have sworn he was blushing.
Her limbs controlled themselves.
Lily watched herself move towards him as she touched his hand to get his attention, then placed her fingers on his neck and leaned up to kiss him, feeling his hands rest hesitantly on the dips of her waist. She wrapped her arms around his neck and snogged him with a new and surprising fire. She hadn't known it was there, she really hadn't.
James pulled away his lips for a moment, staring at her with a look of confused astonishment.
"That was... new," he said.
Lily still had her arms around his neck. She released them and stepped away.
"If that was weird, I'm sorry, I don't know why I did that," she said, embarrassed.
She had turned to walk away, when she felt a hand reach for hers and gently pull her back. James put his arms around her waist and kissed her softly, him giving her the chance to back out and leave. She didn't want to go.
They leaned against the stone wall, pulling each other closer and acquainting their mouths for the first time. After a minute, Lily held his cheek and and parted her lips from his, slowly, giving James one last lingering kiss. He was slow to open his eyes.
"I should go," she said, walking backwards. She unlatched the gate.
"Should we talk about this?" he asked, still standing where she'd left him, his hands shoved into his trouser pockets.
"On the train, okay? I'll find you on the platform," she said, walking quickly to her front step.
She turned back in time to see his confused (and somewhat hurt) expression as he disapparated in a twisted blur and was gone from the pavement. Lily dropped her forehead quietly against her front door, eyes closed in frustration.
Shite.